Now What?

Long time no see. I’ve been all over this country and around in Cambodia and have a lot of stories to tell. Problem is, if I tell them all at once, this update will be about 15 pages long and no one will read it. So in this update, about major outreach, I will be brief. We traveled to Sukhothai, Nakhornprathom, Kanchanburi, and Siem Riep. The first three were in Thailand, the last city is in Cambodia.

Outreach was rough because I was really feeling unmotivated to go. We had just finished DNA and I was all fired up to get back to Chiang Mai and get to work. Plus my introverted self was not looking forward to spending 5 weeks in close quarters with others and very few breaks. But overall it was really good. God did some cool stuff with the people we worked with and in all of our lives. Over the next 3 weeks I will summarize the places we went, what we did, what we saw God do, and include some pictures.

For the rest of this letter, I want to lay out my plans for the foreseeable future. I have spoken with my friend in Chiang Mai and the next step is getting my paperwork done for a visa and work permit and officially joining Frontier Missions Thailand. I am planning on staying here in Thailand for another year before I come back to America. What I will be doing is, first with existing relationships, and then with new ones as God brings them, finding young men who either are Christians or are seriously seeking, who want to really reach people with the truth. Then I will begin a long term discipleship process, which is a fancy way of saying I will be in their lives, encouraging, teaching, and exhorting them to give everything to Christ and live for his glory. At the same time I will be teaching them how to do the same thing with others in their lives already.

To really invest in the lives a few people, and disciple them to do the same with others, to start a new movement of people who are personally involved with each other and a community of the Living Church that will set this region of the world on fire is my short term dream. As of right now, I feel like God is saying I will be here doing this for around 5 years, maybe longer.

Thank you again for all the prayers and support in every rough situation I have found myself in over the past 6 months. God has used this time to really work some deep changes in our relationship, about how much I trust, ask for direction from, listen to, and obey God my Father. It has really re-lit the flame of the desire to share who God is to give hope to those around me, but to do it on His terms, not mine.

As of right now there is one week left in DTS, then I will move back to Chiang Mai to start working. I am still looking for a place to live, and I will have to go to Laos in a few weeks to take care of getting this new visa, and will most likely have to make the run another 3-4 times over the next year.

God bless you all, and be on the lookout for the outreach summaries which I will be sending out over the next few weeks.